Healing Rain, Cry For Me
by Spirit Seer
Summary: Healing rain, cry for me. The rain seemed to portray her tears and sorrow. After all, he had never cared for her. Why should it matter to him if she died? A SasukeXSakura oneshot.


**Summary:** "Healing rain, cry for me." The rain seemed to portray her tears and sorrow. After all, he had never cared for her. Why should it matter to him if she died? A SasukeXSakura one-shot.

A/N: This is meant to take place during the Shippuden story arc. (Haha, I've never even seen/read the Shippuden arc beyond the fanfiction and now I'm writing it, haha... XD) Please enjoy!

**Disclaimers:** I do not own Naruto. That's Masashi Kishimoto's. I don't own "In Time of Silver Rain". That's a choir piece to which the text belongs to Langston Hughes and the music to Audrey Snyder. It's a really pretty piece if you ever get the chance to hear it.

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****Healing Rain, Cry For Me**

_Sakura stood in the middle of her dream realm. Looking before her, she recognized someone that she held very dear a short distance off, his back to her and walking away._

"_Sasuke!" she cried out, running to him. "Wait for me! I want to tell you something!"_

_Hearing her voice, he turned slightly, glancing behind him. He eyed her spitefully as she came up beside him, like he did on the first day they were assigned to Squad 7 together when he told her she was annoying, and said those same words that cut so deeply again._

"_You're annoying," he spat. "Go away."_

_Then he was gone._

Sakura awoke with a start, choking for breath as tears streamed down her face. She sat up in bed, hugging her knees to her chest to ease her racing heart. Why did she keep thinking about Sasuke? He left a long time ago, and she thought that she had finally gotten over him. If he didn't stay for her back then, why did she continue on to wait for his return to her? Why couldn't she let him go, instead allowing it to hurt so much, when he probably was never coming back?

Leaning back, Sakura thought once again over her inability to let him go. She had dreamt this same dream for weeks, always ending the same. She would want to tell him how she felt, but he was so far away from her, and when she would get close enough to talk to him, he would reject her completely like he always had and then leave- leave her, and leaving her with a broken heart. She wanted to tell him how she felt, but she never could.

Was it that no matter how many times she would tell him how she felt, he would always reject her? Push her away like a plague, a black spot tarnishing the air around him?

Did he truly despise her with his whole being, despite that she loved him with all of hers?

Sakura felt the hollow feeling in her chest always left by the dream deepen, and she felt her tears renew as they streamed once again down her cheeks.

A drumming sound on her window suddenly brought her out of her thoughts. Looking outside, she saw a harsh downpour of spring rain, cleansing the earth of its iniquities to refresh it for the following day.

"_In time of silver rain, the earth puts forth new life again…"_ The song echoed softly in her head as she wiped away the tears on her cheeks.

Could this rain do the same for her, chasing away the darkness of her dreams and past?

A feeling of hope springing in her heart, she decided to venture into the wellspring of life. Perhaps as the spring rains came to renew the earth after the harsh winter, it could renew her soul, and put new life into her being as well.

Sakura heaved a shuddering sigh as she stood, trying to soften her sobs before she awoke her parents. She didn't want to have to make up an explanation for why she was crying yet again in the dead of night, much less them discovering her with her window open, about to enter into the dark, hammering void.

Silently, she undid the latch before the window was thrown open by a large gust of wind. _'It looks really bad out there…'_ Sakura thought as she stepped unto the window ledge, and felt her clothes immediately pelted with angry rain. But then as she jumped off her window and became immersed within it, she wondered if the rain was echoing a raging sorrow like her own, rather than anger. She felt the despair blossom in her chest as she wandered down the lonely road, and was reminded of the night that Sasuke left Konoha.

As if portraying her emotions, the storm increased its sorrowful intensity around her.

She was glad the crying rain hid her tears among its own.

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After half an hour of mindless walking, she found herself near the entrance of Konoha, standing next to the same bench that Sasuke left her own all that time ago… She shook her head, trying to erase that image from her mind, her wet, pink hair clinging to the sides of her face.

She stood there for a moment, empty from the resurge of memory, before finally collapsing on the edge of the bench. Sorrow, despair and dark feelings overwhelmed her like the torrent that was already all around her. She brought her hand to her mouth, trying to stifle the now louder sobs. The action was unnecessary, however, as any noise was already masked by the pealing thunder, and her form itself was masked by the falling rain, save for someone looking for her by her chakra or directly in front of her.

Was this to be the legacy of her life, she wondered, giving her life and love to a boy who would never return it to her? Wasting away from the sadness, and never allowing the light of the sun to penetrate the dark clouds of her being and renew her life? Or would Sasuke always be the light that could enter her being and heal her, never allowing another to become the healing rains that come after the winter to prepare for the coming spring? Would the sakura blossom that represented herself, never bloom into that pretty flower that others said would?

She curled up on the bench, her sides heaving as she abandoned her walls and allowed her tears of sorrow to flow freely, intermingling with the tears of the rain on her cheeks and body. Why couldn't she let him go? She wanted to scream out to the sky, plead for an answer. Why must she endure this day after day, never finding reprieve, when he didn't love her, never would, and wasn't coming back to her?

She wanted release.

She was trapped in a dark, lightless void.

Her pain was too immense.

Even the void couldn't hold it all. She screamed silently, despairingly within it, searching for her light.

Where was the light- _her _light- to pierce her darkness? Would she never find it?

Feelings of bitter sorrow overwhelmed her again, and she reached behind her, brushing the tip of her kunai with her fingers. There is one way to end it, she thought, as she held the knife in her hand. Bringing it before her, she found her answer.

And it would be quick- all over in one swift, clean stroke.

She could be free of her darkness and black pain. She could free her heart and soul from its haunting bindings, and finally be rid of his memory.

After all, he didn't care for her. He never cared that she lived…

…so why would he care if she died?

Gripping the kunai with both hands, she took a deep breath, and raised it to her throat. All it would take was one move-

Flash-Boom!

There was a blinding flash of lightning, followed by an angry peal of thunder. Sakura, who became eerily illuminated by the sudden light for a split second, hesitated over her decision as the rain became angry pellets that strung her skin. She felt like the rain was no longer sorrowful, but full of wrath against her. Was God angry over her choice…?

Sakura looked down at the knife in her hands, contemplating if it was really worth it, now that she was about to do it. Then Sasuke's voice once again echoed in her memory.

"_You're weak."_

Dark determination filled her being as she stood. She clutched the kunai in her right hand so tightly her knuckles turned white. In a swift motion, she shut her eyes so as not to watch the world dim around her…

…and slashed.

But something held her arm firmly, just below her wrist, to prevent what she had just been about to do. A voice, heavy from gasping breath, spoke in a monotone.

"Sakura… what are you doing."

Slowly, Sakura came back to reality and turned to look into his face. Dull jade eyes met with blazing onyx ones.

"I asked you what you were doing," Sasuke repeated, gripping her wrist tighter so as to force Sakura to release the kunai that she had been about to use to kill herself, causing her to wince slightly. It dropped onto the muddied road with a couple of light thumps, before coming to rest in the puddle it had landed in.

Sakura looked away, unable to hold her gaze with his. "What does it matter to you, anyway," she muttered. "You wouldn't care if I lived or died!" Suddenly ferocious jade eyes met and battled the onyx, daring him to contradict her.

Sasuke's blazing black eyes softened slightly. "It matters to me," he muttered, holding her gaze, before fire returned to rage within them. "I do care whether you live or kill yourself!"

"Really?" Sakura scoffed bitterly, turning her eyes away again. "You've had a funny way of showing that." Once again her fire returned with a passion as she said, her voice rising with every word so that she was almost screaming by the end, "You ignored me, pushed me away every time I tried to tell you I loved you, that I cared, you always did the same thing!" Angry tears brimmed at the corners of her eyes in place of ones of sorrow. "You cared?! You NEVER cared!! You _cared_ about me so much that even after I confessed the depth of my love for you, you knocked me out and left me lying on this bench! You left me with a broken heart, a shattered soul, to spend the rest of this time waiting for you to return while the darkness of my despair and loneliness and sorrow ate and destroyed my being! So what," she spat, "if you're the village's top medical ninja if you can't even heal your own wounded heart and soul!! You left me to die the moment you left his village, so what does it matter to you if I died tonight by my kunai, when you used yours to destroy my heart long ago!!"

Sasuke stood silent as the rain drummed around him. The passion of Sakura's outburst had died down, but the fire remained in her eyes, burning into his.

Finally, he murmured, "You have every right to be angry. You have every right to hate me, carve me out of your heart the way I tried to make you give up on me when I left to pursue power for the death of my brother." He paused. "However… I said that you were weak, but I wanted you to hear that and get stronger. I said that you were annoying, and I wanted you to stop paying so much attention to me when you could've been focusing on improving yourself and giving me some breathing room. But I never said that I didn't care about you, and that is why I'm here. Like how you somehow knew that night that I was going to leave, somehow I knew tonight to be here to stop you from ending your life before it had even fully blossomed. Sakura," he murmured, "I know that I have no right to ask this, especially after all I've done, so I won't ask you to stay alive for me, but I would ask that you move on, and allow someone to give some of their light to renew your soul. I don't want you to waste your life away in darkness, the way that I have spent mine."

As Sakura listened to Sasuke speak, she found herself believing him in spite of herself, and astonished at the honesty apparent in his voice. She felt fresh confusion bubble within her, and asked, "But… if you truly did care about me, why did you never tell me so before? Was it so difficult to say that you cared for me as well?" Silence met her for a brief moment, but was quickly filled with the sound of rain and a soft peal of thunder.

Sasuke glanced beside him, slightly uneasy. "Because," he said, a faint blush creeping into his cheeks, "if I had told you that I loved you, the way I am telling you now, you would never have let me go to focus on your training, on becoming stronger. As before, you would only be focusing on me, and if you were to advance as a ninja, I couldn't be in the picture." He turned back to Sakura, holding her face in his hands to emphasize his feeling. "But I love you, and I know that I don't deserve your love, especially after all I've done to you, but if you'd be willing to accept me back…." He paused, leaning so close to Sakura that she could feel his breath brushing her face through the rain. "…I can prove it to you."

Then Sasuke leaned in closer, and kissed her.

Sakura was stunned at the action. She didn't know how to react, what to do. Here was the moment she had always dreamed of, and the words she had always longed to hear. But were they meant in the fullest sincerity? Was there truth in what he was saying, despite all the darkness she was surrounded with? As she paused for a moment, and allowed him to hold her in his kiss, she felt truth radiating from his being like light from a break in the storm.

Sasuke did care for her.

He honestly, truly loved her.

But would she, could she, accept him back?

Sasuke released her from the kiss, and looked at her expectantly. When he received no answer, Sakura saw his eyes sadden, and his form sigh ever so slightly.

"Alright," Sasuke murmured softly, as he released her face from his hands. He stepped back from her, and then turned to go.

But someone gripped his hand.

Sasuke turned and found Sakura holding onto his hand, a small smile upon her sad face.

"If you… if you would accept a wounded soul, and the time it may take for the sun to once again shine through my clouds of darkness which were left behind before, would you accept it?" she asked.

Slowly, a smile, the first true smile that he had felt in many years, graced Sasuke's face. "I would," he murmured, pulling her close to him in a tight embrace which she returned with the most happiness she had felt since the day Sasuke left the village. He had returned to her, and she didn't want to let him go.

They remained there as the storm continued to rage around them, albeit it seemed gentler now, like there was a calm edge beginning to form in it. The lightning came less frequent, the thunder less boisterous, and the wind less of a howl. The rain no longer seemed to pelt them with angry darts, but rather to soothe them with a gentler, happier rhythmic patter as they held tight to each other, not wanting to let the other go.

Soon, morning came, and with it the storm abated, revealing a glorious sun. As she sat beside Sasuke on the bench, Sakura felt a new joy welling within her. The night's rain had washed away all her feelings of darkness, bringing with it a new happiness she never knew possible. And she wanted to hold onto it forever, like she wanted to trust Sasuke to remain with her forever. So, as she looked from him to the new life around and within herself, she gazed upon the rising day that mirrored her soul, and the song rang once again in her heart,

"_In time of silver rain the earth brings forth new life again, in time of silver rain. The butterflies lift their silken wings to catch a rainbow cry, and trees put forth new leaves to sing in joy beneath the sky..."_

The End.

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A/N: Well, I hope you enjoyed it! Please R I would really appreciate it to know your opinion. Please no flames, but I accept constructive critism if you have some for me. Thanks so much!


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